Saturday, January 26, 2013

IGA has a two day sale on Fresh Ground Chuck this week for $1.89 a pound. It was only for two days and I'm not sure if you can see the yellow bubble inside the ad, but it says "While Supplies Last!" I thought to myself that they probably don't have very much in stock and it is going to sell out fast and I really wanted to get in on this deal. With ground chuck costing $4.00 a pound here right now, I knew this was a good deal.

School was cancelled yesterday due to the freezing rain here, and I had to take my Dad to the hospital for a medical procedure, but I did end up getting to IGA even with all of that and got in on this very good deal. There were a lot of people surrounding the meat case when I got there because they were having a good sale on several types of meat, but I only wanted the ground beef and did manage to pick up four packages of this ground chuck. The cashier told me people were panicking because of the freezing rain and she had been swamped all morning.

Here is a picture of the four packages I bought:

8.66 pounds - $16.37

8.57 pounds - $16.20

8.71 pounds - $16.46

8.63 pounds - $16.31

Here is a picture of my receipt as well:

So, I ended up buying 34.57 pounds of meat for $65.34 or $70.57 with tax.

I came home and packaged this up into two pound packages for my freezer. I ended up with 18 packages with 2 pounds each for the freezer. There are 16 in this photo as I placed two of them in the refrigerator to use this weekend. I am planning on making tacos for dinner tonight.

Here is a picture before they went into the freezer:

The last time I was able to stock up on Ground Chuck was in August 2011, which was over one year ago. I know I've been talking about using up what I have in my pantry, but I also subscribe to The Pantry Principle. The basic idea behind The Pantry Principle is to stockpile your
pantry with food that you are able to purchase at the lowest possible
price. So, even though I am using up the food in my pantry, I would not pass up on a good sale like this. This will last me for quite some time and save me a lot of money. If I had bought this ground chuck at the regular price of $4.00 per pound I would have spent $138.28, so I actually saved $72.94, which was more than I paid for the beef.

I am just tickled to have found this great deal and be able to stock my freezer with food bought at the lowest possible price.

Friday, January 25, 2013

This recipe for Taco Soup comes from the Get Rich Slowly website. I made a big batch of this soup on Tuesday evening after work and school and we've been eating this for the past three days. I actually made a double batch of this recipe and in the end my 12 quart stockpot held about 6 quarts of this soup. Here is the recipe along with some tweaks (my changes are in red) that I made.

I've been using this recipe for the last five years and it has become a tried and true family favorite. I love making a big batch of something early in the week and then being able to eat on it all week long. It is definitely a money saver when you don't have to cook all week, but simply have to reheat something.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

I had an appointment in town today and afterwards stopped in at Cooke's to see what they had on special. You can't see the coupon anymore, but there was one attached for $2.00 off this package of ground beef. I scanned that portion of my receipt, so you could see the $2.00 off coupon.

With the coupon, this was approximately 2 pounds of hamburger for $1.85 per pound. That is better than the current price of $4.00 per pound.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Have you been listening to the chatter lately about the "Payroll Tax" or better known as the Social Security Tax?

Social Security is funded by a 12.4% tax on wages up to $110,100.

Half is paid by employers and the other half is
paid by workers.

For 2011 and 2012, Congress and Obama cut the share
paid by workers from 6.2% to 4.2%.

Starting on January 1, the tax credit expired and workers are now back to paying the 6.2%.

Did you notice the difference on your paycheck?

I knew about the tax credit expiring, but did not notice a difference on my check. We received a $10.00 per day raise at the start of the school year, so I've been happy with my paycheck all this time.Perhaps those that had abigger difference taken out of their paychecks feel differently, which is understandable.I've seen a lot of articles written with sympathy towards workers.

Do you think workers have gotten used to spending the extra 2% and are now feeling the pain of having it taken out of their checks again?

Did you all see the terrific grapefruit coupon floating around the Internet this week? You can Google "$2 off grapefruitcoupon" to find it. Several websites have it on their sites this week.

The coupon is good for $2.00 off 56 ounces or more of 100% juice or 3 pounds or more of grapefruit. And just as luck would have it, one of our local grocery stores (Cooke's) had Ocean Spray 100% grapefruit juice on sale this week, 64 ounce bottles priced at 2 for $4.00.

I was able to pick up two free bottles and only had to pay the sales tax. That is my kind of deal. :)

Monday, January 14, 2013

We remain in use it up mode here at the Frugal Workshop and I have to tell you all what we had for dinner tonight. I have several cans of Campbell's Chicken with Rice soup in the Family Size can in my pantry that no one has been eating. I bought thisbecause it is one of my favorite soups. Someone the other day told me they didn't like it and would not eat it.

On Sunday I made a Chicken Stir Fry for dinner.

I worked today and wanted to make something quick for dinner. I thought about several different options and then remembered I had leftover stir fry, but I knew it was not enough to feed three people.

Hmmmm.....what to do? What to do?

I decided to drain the broth from the can of soup and add it to the stir fry to s-t-r-e-t-c-h it to feed all three people. Well guess what? The one who said they didn't like this soup asked for second helpings!!

Total for all my groceries was $15.70, which makes my total for this month $42.80. Remember I am working on using up what I have in the pantry and freezer, so my grocery total will be lower this month than usual.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

One of our favorite
frugal lunches here at the Frugal Workshop is egg salad sandwiches. There are many variations for this frugal sandwich and we usually have it on the menu several times each week.

I normally hard-boil at least a dozen eggs every week. Yesterday I had two and a half dozen eggs from our chickens that I boiled for this week. After the eggs have cooled, I peel them and place them in a container, which then goes into the refrigerator. We can then eat them for breakfast, have one for a snack, make egg salad or deviled eggs, or include them in a salad. If I am making egg salad that day, I take each egg and place it into my egg slicer and slice the egg one way, turn the egg around and slice the other way, and then add them to my bowl. Here is my very basic egg salad recipe:5 hard boiled eggsSeveral spoonfuls of mayonnaise (I don't measure this)Several spoonfuls of sweet pickle relish (I don't measure this)I add all of this together and sort of mash the eggs up to create the texture I want. I then toast my bread and serve the egg salad on toasted bread. If I have celery or green olives on hand I like to add those too, but they are not necessary.

We have been getting eggs daily ever since finding our first egg from this batch of chickens back in November. We've been getting anywhere from five to eight eggs per day and have so many we have been sharing them with friends. We gave three dozen to a friend who was kind enough to haul our old freezer away when we replaced it last summer.

The chickens are a pleasure to have around the yard and they provide us with food as well. That to me is a win-win situation. Here is a picture of our rooster who goes by the name Fog Horn Leghorn because he is so big. I threw a piece of popcorn to him the other day and the other chickens came running at him, so he took off running with his loot. It was fun to watch. :)

For Friday
night dinner I had planned to have vegetable beef soup. But, when I came home
from work my dad had already cooked dinner for us: Salmon Loaf, Soup Beans, and Corn. It was a
pleasant surprise.

So, on Saturday
morning, I woke up and got started on the Vegetable Beef Soup.

I took the
roast, left from Christmas dinner, that I had stored in the freezer and added
that to my soup pot. I also added the lone baked potato from Wednesday night’s
dinner, the leftover green beans and onions from Thursday night’s dinner, and
the soup beans from Friday night’s dinner.It was definitely a “use it up” kind of soup. I added some chicken and
beef broth, which I had on hand and some salt.

I then let it all simmer on the stove top until lunchtime. Here is what my portion looked like:

This was a big hit with my family. And I have to say that it makes me feel good to know I am using up food in my refrigerator and freezer rather than letting it go to waste. My Grandmother used to make soup once a week by cleaning out her refrigerator at the end of the week. My Dad still talks about those soups to this day and that was 60 years ago. My Grandmother was being frugal - she was using up what she had to save money.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Pictured above is a pair of jeans I bought for my daughter on eBay. You can see they are new jeans with the tags still attached with the original price tag of $36.99. I paid $7.99 for these jeans plus a $5.00 shipping charge, so $12.99 for these jeans. I gave these to her as a Christmas present and so she will have a new outfit when she returns to school after her Christmas break. Over the years, I have bought her brand new jeans from retail stores, but it is great when I can find them in the second hand market for a lot less money.

Listed above is our menu for the next seven days. We had Tacos today and did not do the traditional black eyed peas for New Year's Day dinner. We have all of these foods on hand for this menu and do not have to go grocery shopping for anything to make these dinners. Sales advertisements do come out tomorrow though, and I will be checking those, but won't need to buy anything unless it is a good deal. My goals for this month include using up foods I have on hand for making meals rather than buying more food. And saving as much money as I can since I have added expenses this month for auto registration, Insurance membership, and automobile insurance. You'll notice two of our meals this week are meatless meals, which will help us save money as well.

Pictured above are three coupons I recently received from My Coke Rewards for three free 12 packs of any Coke product. I decided on two boxes of Spite, which are good to have on hand in case of an upset stomach. I also decided on one box of Minute Maid Lemonade. Here are the boxes I "purchased" with my coupons:

If you are new to My Coke Rewards you can read my original post about the program here. A coupon for a free 12 pack is 240 points and one cap is worth 3 points, while a 12 pack box is worth 10 points.

I still have a shoebox full of caps that I need to enter into the computer. I work on them every now and then. These are the ones Mom used to get at work from her friends and in the hopper.